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Just over two weeks ago 10-year-old Rupert Cross, who received a stem cell transplant to treat his rare blood disorder, met the stranger who helped save his life.

Billy Higgins, from Essex, joined the Anthony Nolan register when he spotted a woman he liked in the queue. He was found to be a match for Rupert and donated stem cells collected via the bone marrow, while under general anaesthetic.

We're delighted to announce the winners of our annual Anthony Nolan Supporters Awards, following the awards ceremony at the Tower of London on Thursday 22 November.

The event has been taking place for the past four years, and has seen hundreds of awards presented to deserving fundraisers, families of patients, donors, clinical supporters and journalists, all of whom have supported Anthony Nolan in a number of ways.

Award nominees are decided by a mixture of recommendations from within the organisation and public nominations.

Education about stem cell donation, used to treat patients with blood cancers and blood disorders, could encourage up to 55,000 young people a year join the UK stem cell register, the charity Anthony Nolan has revealed today.

A new subject called Health Education will be compulsory in all state-funded schools in England from September 2020 and Anthony Nolan is urging the Department for Education to add stem cell donation to statutory guidance which already covers blood and organ donation for secondary school pupils.

A father from County Down is calling for more people to sign up as potential stem cell donors, after his son was told he urgently needs a stem cell transplant to treat his cancer.

Thomas Cafolla, 22, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in October 2017. He had just begun a placement year in London, as part of his hospitality course at Ulster University, when he started feeling unwell.

Thomas’ father Michael said: ‘He was having night sweats and feeling particularly tired, but initially we put it down to a change in environment and the stress of working in a busy hotel.

The mother of two five-year old twins desperately needs a stem cell transplant to treat acute myeloid leukemia, a rare form of blood cancer. Meena Kumari-Sharma and her family are campaigning to raise awareness of the need to recruit more donors to the Anthony Nolan register.

A mother-of-five from Bury, whose youngest twin daughters were both diagnosed with a rare blood disorder, is trying to encourage more people to sign up as potential stem cell donors. Both Pixie-Rose and Presley-Pearl Sellars, two, were diagnosed with myelofibrosis and myelodysplasia, a rare blood disorder affecting the bone marrow.